I really enjoyed this article, and I can see how many of my own behaviors map onto this cue-routine-reward structure. I've been wanting to read this book, but now I don't feel that I need to.

I would appreciate it if another reader could try to explain how rumination (focused attention on the symptoms of one's distress, and on its possible causes and consequences, as opposed to its solutions) would fit into this framework. Here's my attempt:

Let's say you were fired from a job you liked, and you ruminate on the loss of the job.

The cue: seeing a former co-worker The routine: think of everything that went wrong on the job leading to your firing, the possible changes you could have made but didn't, feeling stupid The reward: to discipline yourself?

I feel that the cue and routine are well described, but I'm not sure about how the reward.